Donald Trump and maga Republicans abandoned their message about "affordabability"- guess it had too many letters difficult to spell

 Echo opinion published in New York Magazine Intelligencer by Ed Kilgore: Trump Waging War on His Own Affordability* Strategy #SIASD

(This opinion essays seems prophetic, in my opinion, creates the sense of a looming world wide depression.  #ImpeachTrumpNow❗ #SenatorSusanCollins)

Donald Trump’s “war of choice” against Iran is a big departure from his administration’s alleged determination to focus on improving the domestic economy and addressing concerns about affordability before crucial midterm elections this November. 

But, aside from the Donald Trump's spectacular failure to stay on message, there is a more specific problem with the sudden lurch into a regional war in the Middle East. 

To the extent Trump had an actual affordability agenda (other than calling concerns about living costs “a hoax”), a central pillar was keeping energy prices low by demolishing any obstacles to maximum exploitation of fossil-fuel resources. Aside from the beneficial effect this might have on prices for other goods and services influenced by energy costs, the “drill baby drill” mentality was designed to reduce gasoline pump prices, one of the most visible inflation indicators from the perspective of regular folks.

Suddenly, the United States has produced an energy-price crisis for itself and for the whole world, Reuters reports:

Traffic through the Strait ​of Hormuz was closed for a fourth day after Iran attacked five ships, choking off a key artery accounting for about 20% of global oil and LNG supply. …

The conflict risks triggering a renewed spike in inflation that could choke off economic recovery in Europe and Asia if the war is prolonged in a region that accounts for just under a third of global ​oil production and almost a fifth of natural gas.

Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, on Tuesday said it may be forced to cut production by more than three million barrels per day ​in a few days if oil tankers cannot move freely to loading points, according to two Iraqi oil officials.

While other countries face the most dire immediate economic consequences from a war that Trump is now projecting to last a month or more (“whatever it takes,” to be precise), it’s about to affect Americans too:

American motorists will pay more at the pump amid spiking oil prices due to the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran, with experts predicting gasoline prices could rise sharply this week.

The price of West Texas Intermediate crude, a type of oil primarily produced in the U.S., jumped 6.2% on Monday to $71.19 per barrel, according to data from FactSet. Brent crude, the international benchmark, surged nearly 9% to $79.31 per barrel on Monday, its highest point in more than a year.

Gas prices in the U.S. will move higher, according to GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan, who predicted that some gas stations could be charging as much as 30 cents more per gallon. 

And the indirect effects could be even more severe, as Canadian energy expert Rory Johnston told our own Benjamin Hart:

I think if this lasts a couple more days, we’ll see it reflected at the gas pump in terms of overall gas prices. 

Diesel will be even more acutely affected. I think the big impact will be on freight and shipping rates, and that’s going to hit consumers more on the price of produce, the price of random consumer goods. That’s the type of stuff that diesel will complicate more. So I think you will see an impact at the price of the pumps, but the biggest impact won’t be as visible to consumers immediately. It will take a while to work through the supply chain.

As part of their furious spin about a war that’s already unpopular outside Trump’s Republican base, administration gabbers are arguing that Trump’s expansion of fossil-fuel production is giving him the strategic flexibility to wreck global oil markets without catastrophic consequences, notes the New York Times:

The Trump administration said that it has more leeway to act aggressively in the Middle East because the world is flush with oil and gas, thanks in part to record U.S. production, and has less to fear than it once did from energy price shocks.

The ongoing war in Iran could put that theory to the test.🤥

While it may be comforting to Americans to be told they won’t be paying as much for this war as they might have had Trump not impatiently brushed aside environmental fears about fossil fuels, it doesn’t explain the decision to subordinate economic policy to another Donald Trump (bone spurs❗🦴❗)military adventure. 

Yes, MAGA true believers are buying Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear-weapon and missile programs posed an immediate threat to the United States, but other Americans are not persuaded at the moment. So, Donald Trump's reckless decision thrusting in this radical direction sure looks like a conscious choice to subordinate the daily concerns of our American people to a globalist agenda and an alliance with Israel that already troubles a majority of Americans.

Shortly before the 2024, presidential election, I was filling up my car with gas in California, and someone had placed on the pump a little decal of Trump pointing at the per-gallon prices and saying, Biden did this! If pump prices continue to go up in 2026, it will be even easier to show that Trump did this❗ And the price will be paid not just by consumers, but by Republican candidates whose affordability arguments have been blown up by the explosions in Iran.

*Affordability is defined as the state of being cheap enough for people to be able to buy. 

Donald Trump and maga Republicans must end the racism campaign supported by Trumpzi evilism

Ongoing presence of racism led by Donald Trump is evil.

Echo opinion letter published in The Central Oregonian newspaper:

We like to believe that bigotry is a product of ignorance and that if we educate people enough, they will become immune to bigotry.  But bigotry is more often a common code of hate to which no community is immune. Trumpzism and bigotry are evilisms.

Oh my❗ 🤢On the morning of February 6th, I was shown the hideous video meme on Trump’s Truth (Fake ❗) Social, showing the faces of Michelle and Barack Obama imposed on ape bodies. 

I was deeply saddened 😥 to see the racist Donald Trump, president of the U.S. creating such despicable bigotry. 

 “Fruit never falls far from the tree.” Remember Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was arrested in 1927 for participating in a violent KuKluxKlan (KKK) rally in New York City. Remember the 1973, federal lawsuit brought against Donald Trump and his company for racial discrimination at Trump housing developments in New York City. He would not sell or lease properties to people of “color.” Trump is a racist, pure and simple. When I saw Trump’s first evil red MAGA hat, I immediately read: Make America White Again.

Having grown through the civil rights movement of the 1960s, I never imagined that racism would publicly raise its head again in the United States. Remember the firehoses, the attack dogs, the beatings and the murders against people who only wanted to be treated as equals? The only difference was the color of their skin. 

Remember, white supremacists George Wallace and Bull Connor were called “racist pigs.” It appears we still have some “racist pigs” living amongst us.  Remember, Hitler justified the Holocaust by claiming Jews looked different, were inferior and were the cause of the world’s problems. It’s called racism. If you have noticed the faces behind the ICE masks, they are all white. Many of them are recruited from the convicted felon Nazi insurrectionists who stormed the capitol on Jan. 6, whom Trump pardoned. Ninety-five percent of the people detained by ICE have no criminal records 😢and are in our country legally seeking citizenship. Notice their commonality: they have dark skin, and perhaps they speak with an accent. Pure racism.  We have a movement in our country called “White Nationalism.” That sounds similar to “Aryan Nation,” doesn’t it? Much of this is based upon the pseudo-science “Race Science,” which maintains that the “white” race is superior. Adolf Hitler’s Nazis did EXACTLY the same thing❗

From Walt Bolton  in Prineville, Oregon

Donald Trump and maga Republicans violate religious liberty of military make false claims about Armageddon

Military leaders pushing 'Armageddon views' on troops as Iran war begins: complaint pulished in RawStory by Travis Gettys.

A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers Monday that the Iran war was part of God's plan to usher in the End Times and bring about Jesus Christ's second coming, according to a complaint filed with a religious freedom watchdog.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has fielded more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the U.S. military between the war's start on Saturday morning and Monday night, reported journalist Jonathan Larson on his Substack page, and the group told him the complaints came from more than 40 different units stationed in at least 30 military installations.

"These calls have one damn thing in freaking common; our MRFF clients [service members who seek MRFF aid] report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders and command chains as to how this new 'biblically-sanctioned' war is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian 'End Times' as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation," said MRFF President and Founder Mikey Weinstein, a veteran of the Air Force and the Reagan White House.

"Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100 percent accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology," Weinstein added.

Weinstein pointed out prohibitions in the U.S. Constitution and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) against inserting religious beliefs into official military instruction or messaging, and a non-commissioned officer who filed a complaint with MRFF said their commander's comments "destroy morale and unit cohesion."

"This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be 'afraid' as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now," that non-commissioned officer said in a complaint filed Monday. "He urged us to tell our troops that this was 'all part of God’s divine plan' and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ."
"He said that 'Donald Trump has been anointed by Jesus🤥  to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,'" the complaint continued. "He had a big grin on his face when he said all of this which made his message seem even more crazy."

"Our commander would probably be described as a 'Christian First' supporter," the complaint added. "He has been this way for a very long time and makes it clear that he desires all of us under him to become just like him as a Christian. But what he did this morning was so toxic and over the line that it shocked many of us in attendance at the ops readiness briefing."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has elevated a Christian nationalism theology that has simmered within the military for decades, Larson wrote, and he attends a weekly White House Bible study session led by right-wing pastor Ralph Drollinger, who preaches support for Israel is required by the Scriptures.

"Some Christians claim biblical prophecy requires Israel to exist for Jesus to return," Larson wrote. "But Hegseth’s Bible study leader, preacher Ralph Drollinger, teaches that the reason to support Israel is that God still blesses Israel’s allies and curses Israel’s enemies, even though Israel killed Jesus (this smear, the historic root of antisemitism, has been rejected by every major religion)."

The non-commissioned officer's complaint states that those views were passed down from their commander to troops deployed in their "ready-support" unit, and that individual said the group was troubled by the apocalyptic religious framing of the military operation.

"I and my fellow troops know that it is completely wrong to have to suffer through what our commander said today," that non-commissioned officer said. "It’s not just the separation of church and state as we discussed Mr. Weinstein. It’s the fact that our commander feels as though he is fully supported and justified by the entire (combat unit’s name withheld) chain of command to inflict his Armageddon views of our attack on Iran on those of us beneath him in the chain of command."

Donald Trump and maga Republicans like Rep. Mike Turner in Ohio must find somebody to read this op-ed to them

Donald Trump’s doomed war in Iran 

Echo opinion published in the Boston Globe by Stephen Kinzer.

America’s interventions in the Middle East never go well.

By attacking Iran, the United States 

launched a war of choice based on false pretenses. 

Iran appears to have neither an active nuclear weapons program nor ballistic missiles that can reach Europe and the United States. Rather than make America safer, this attack further destabilizes the world’s most volatile region and sharpens America’s image as the world’s most aggressive bully.

Violently intervening in the affairs of another country makes sense under some circumstances. If a vital interest of the United States is at stake, if the intervention has a clear goal, if the American people support it, and if there is no way to achieve the desired goal through any other means, bombing could make sense. In the case of this attack on Iran, none of those conditions has been met.

There are no good outcomes to this manufactured crisis — not even for Donald Trump. His base is devoted to the Donald Trump who promised during his campaign to end “forever wars” and be a “peace president.” This war immolates that pretense once and for all. Trump may be hoping for a quick collapse of the Iranian regime and the emergence of a new one subservient to Washington, which might help him at the polls. That, however, is the least likely outcome of this misbegotten war.

Iran is the big country in the heart of the Middle East — four times the size of Iraq with twice the population. Its political system is not based on individual leaders, but on a complex and overlapping matrix of institutions that are deeply rooted in society. 

Even killing the Supreme Leader, every cabinet minister, every member of parliament, and every general would not be enough to bring down the regime. The most likely result of a decapitation campaign would be to propel the Revolutionary Guard to power, which would probably produce a regime more repressive than the mullahs have been — and more willing to develop nuclear weapons. The other possibility is civil war. An Iran in chaos is Iranians’ nightmare scenario. But, it is the dream scenario for Israel, which played a decisive role in pushing Trump to launch this war.

Israel’s influence on Trump is not simply political. It is eminently financial. Supporters of Israel have given huge amounts of money to Trump — $100 million from Miriam Adelson alone. 

Since the Supreme Court removed limits on campaign contributions in its 2010, damaging Citizens United decision, the American political system has descended into a form of legalized bribery. 

That is bad enough when corporations and billionaires use their mountains of cash to shape policies that favor them. It is even worse when campaign contributions lead the United States into war.

Iran’s leaders have calculated that they can survive a war and that they might not survive surrendering to the United States. That is based on resentment of foreign intervention that has been building in Iran since Russia sliced off pieces of its territory two centuries ago. It became especially intense after 1953, when the CIA organized a plot that ended Iran’s promising experiment with democracy.

Iran’s popular prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalized the country’s oil industry, which until then had been owned by the British. For that sin, the British and American secret services organized a coup to depose him. The United States placed Mohammad Reza Shah back on the Peacock Throne. He ruled with increasing repression until being overthrown in 1979. That produced the mullahs’ regime, which has spent decades working intently and sometimes violently to undermine American interests around the world. No American intervention of the 20th century produced such a powerful boomerang effect. Instead of taking it as a warning, Trump has launched another intervention that is likely to be just as self-defeating.

This war highlights the sobering reality that our political system allows a single person to launch conflicts that can devastate entire regions. America’s founders sought to prevent that by giving Congress the sole power to declare war. Congress, however, has refused to play its assigned role. 

A couple of congressmen tried to push through a resolution asserting that Trump could not bomb Iran without approval from Congress, but it was blocked by congressional leaders.

This war also shows how unable or unwilling the United States is to extract itself from the Middle East. 

Over the last quarter-century, the United States has been constantly at war there. The bombing of Iran could be seen not as a new war, but simply the latest battle in a long campaign that has already devastated Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza. The idea of withdrawing military forces from the region and allowing the countries there to resolve their own problems seems anathema in Washington. We cannot let go of our dream of a Middle East run by leaders who kowtow to Washington. That is, in no small part, why no one born in this century has ever known a time when the Middle East was at peace.

Since bombing is unlikely either to entice Iran’s leaders out of their angry isolation or to produce a less repressive regime, could any other approach work? The best hope would be a negotiated deal like the one President Obama reached in 2015. Trump, however, is pursuing a foreign policy that is largely diplomacy-free. Iranians are its latest victims.

Stephen Kinzer is a senior fellow at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans killed too many people to count in an illegal war against Iran including dead children

Maine Writer, my husband was stationed in Subic Bay Philippines when our family lived there as US Navy dependents. Our experience included witnessing the mass chaos caused by the defeat of the Americans and the Vietnam army, on April 30, 1975, during the fall of Saigon. After this humanitarian disaster occurred, the unanticipated collateral damage the leadership vacuum caused in South Vietnam led to the rise of the Killing Fields of Cambodia. Killing Fields refer to sites in Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge regime executed and buried over a million people between 1975, and 1979.

In other words, without leadership in Saigon, caused by the collapse of the government, the Cambodians were defenseless when the evil Po Pot became the architect of the heinous Killing Fields.  

Killing an enemy leader often escalates conflict and chaos.

Echo opinion essay published by Robert A. Pape, in the Los Angeles Times

The U.S. and Israel gambled on “decapitation” in Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and many others. History shows the danger of this approach in nationalist conflicts: It often works tactically — and fails strategically.

Although the weekend’s “shock and awe” bombing campaign and the U.S.-led regime change remind many of Iraq, it is not the most instructive case. That would be Chechnya.

On April 21, 1996, Russian forces executed one of the most precise assassinations of the modern era.

Dzhokhar Dudayev was the target. He was the leader of Chechnya’s separatist war against Moscow. 

Repeated attempts to locate him had failed. He was mobile and deeply cautious.

President Boris Yeltsin requested talks. Dudayev refused. Only after King Hassan II of Morocco agreed to serve as intermediary — in a mediation effort encouraged by the United States — did Dudayev accept a call. As Dudayev spoke on a handheld satellite phone with the Moroccan monarch, Russian aircraft waited beyond visual range.

Signals intelligence locked onto the phone’s emissions. Two missiles homed in. Dudayev was killed instantly.

By operational standards, it was flawless. The 100% tactical success turned more on James Bond tricks than Tom Clancy technology. Diplomatic choreography created electronic exposure. Precision weapons did the rest. No ground assault. No Russian casualties. No ambiguity.

For airpower theorists shaped by the 1991 Persian Gulf War, this was the embodiment of a powerful idea largely refined in U.S. planning circles: strategic bombing could kill, overthrow or paralyze enemy leaders and compress wars into days. Like the Texas Ranger slogan — “One riot, one Ranger” — the implied promise was “one war, one raid.”

The rationale behind decapitation assumed regimes are hierarchies: Remove the apex, and the structure collapses. In Chechnya, only the first step happened — which was predictable. Nationalism is not stagnant and not hierarchical. It grows after foreign attacks and evolves into more powerful identity coalitions.

When U.S. strikes failed to kill Moammar Kadafi in 1986, or Saddam Hussein numerous times in the 1990s, many airpower advocates concluded near misses were the problem. 

If the leader actually died, the regime would fracture.

Russia — with a critical U.S. assist — proved the execution could be perfected.

But execution was never the core variable.

Leadership (scary ❗😨)assassination in international disputes does not simply remove authority; it redistributes it under emotional mobilization. That is exactly what has begun in Iran, after months of succession planning with the expectation that 86-year-old Khamenei could be assassinated. A top Iranian official said an interim committee would lead the government while a new leader is chosen.

This is the pattern after decapitation: Martyrdom transfers legitimacy. The successor must demonstrate resolve, not flexibility. The political market rewards maximalism. Moderation becomes disloyalty.

Dudayev’s death did not fragment resistance. Rather, it sanctified it.

Power shifted toward commanders less constrained by negotiation and more willing to escalate.

Among them was Shamil Basayev. The center narrowed. The emotional intensity widened.

Although the strike succeeded tactically, it was a strategic catastrophe, triggering greater nationalism and violence that fueled years of bloody war with Russia.

This is the “smart bomb” trap: A discrete strike intended to compress a conflict instead transforms its character.

Once identity is fused by martyrdom, escalation becomes politically easier. Retaliation broadens. Successors have fewer incentives to compromise and greater incentives to demonstrate defiance.

Diplomacy becomes less workable and war far more likely. What began as a precision event evolves into unstable escalation.

The phase shift now that military superpowers can seemingly abduct or kill foreign leaders with precision is not technological. It is political.

Iranian leaders prepared structured succession chains — multiple rungs deep — in anticipation of targeted strikes. Now that Khamenei is dead, there are several plausible possibilities — none necessarily stabilizing: a rapid infusion of nationalist energy within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; a leadership struggle resolved through nationalist hardening; diffusion of authority across semi-autonomous networks; and expanded activation of Iran’s many militant proxies across the region.

Each pathway increases escalation risk. All diminish future U.S. control of the situation.

Iran is not Iraq in 2003. It is roughly six times larger in territory and four times larger in population. It possesses dense partner networks across the Middle East capable not only of missile strikes — which began almost immediately, as Tehran had promised — but also asymmetric retaliation, including targeted operations against leaders allied with the U.S. in the region.

Israeli leaders may be well protected from Iranian nationalist plots. But, are Saudi, Emirati and others who have worked with the Trump administration❓ Decapitation is not a one-sided instrument.

Nor does fragmentation guarantee calm. A fractured Iran of nearly 90 million people could produce competing nationalist centers seeking legitimacy through confrontation. The escalatory options available after a martyrdom event are broader than before the strike.